Embodiments of the present invention, relating to the field of desktop cloud applications, provide a desktop-cloud-based media control method and a device, so as to reduce a bandwidth occupied by transmission of a multimedia data stream in a media control process. The method includes: acquiring, by a client, a multimedia data stream, displaying the multimedia data stream, receiving a control instruction sent by a cloud server, and performing a corresponding control operation on the displayed multimedia data stream according to the control instruction. The method embodiment is used for media control.